Inner Evil
by LuckyLadybug
Summary: THE SEQUEL TO MENTAL LAPSE! Seto Kaiba goes up against a very dangerous enemyhis own evil side! Kind reviews are always welcome!


Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Inner Evil  
By Lucky_Ladybug  
  
  
Notes: As always, the characters in this story are not mine! Only the story idea is ;) This is the sequel to Mental Lapse that so many of my readers have been askin' for ^_~ I hope it meets your expectations!! ^^ As always, I am NOT hinting at slash (yaoi) anywhere in here ;) Just the beautiful friendships the show portrays!! ^^ Anyways, hope y'all enjoy!  
  
  
Seto Kaiba leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples tiredly. He looked bleary-eyed at the clock, which was announcing the arrival of 2am.  
  
He hated working late. Especially . . .  
  
He froze, slowly turning around to face the open door. "Who's there?" he demanded, receiving silence as his answer. "I know you're there," he insisted. "I can feel your presence. I feel your eyes staring at me." No reply.  
  
He got up and went to the door, ready to put up a fight if it became necessary. There was no one visibly around, but Seto could still feel someone watching him. It was not a pleasant feeling.  
  
Someone's here, he said to himself. Someone wants me dead.  
  
He turned around and went back to his desk, making certain that the alarm system was on. Even tho it was, he still didn't feel safe.  
  
He had nearly been killed twice in the past few months, once by being tortured for information he didn't know, and then by a powerful mind drug that had very nearly managed to overcome his own will. He had barely been able to break free from its grasp, and then it had tried to kill him by making him fall off the roof of a building, almost as if it had a mind of its own.  
  
He shuddered. That had been too close.  
  
He still had no memory of the events surrounding his capture and the injection of the drug. Supposing it hadn't been a random incident, and that they'd actually meant to get him—which was very likely—they were still running free and they might try again. Not exactly a comforting thought.  
  
He had gone over his list of known enemies several times and had come up blank every time. Pegasus might have the knowledge, but it wasn't his style—he didn't think it was, anyway. Of course, there were also most likely many enemies he didn't know about. But he had the strange feeling that he did know this enemy, and that he had to be very careful.  
  
The phone rang and Seto jumped. Who would be calling at this infernal hour? Who would even know he was here, except . . .  
  
"Kaiba," he said into the phone, pressing the button for Line 1.  
  
"Big brother?"  
  
"Mokuba!" Seto exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing up at this hour?"  
  
"I couldn't sleep," the young boy replied. His voice sounded muffled.  
  
"Mokuba, are you using the phone on my desk again?" Seto asked, trying not to smile. Mokuba often went under the desk in Seto's home office to make calls, saying it was more private, driving the maid crazy.  
  
"Yes," Mokuba admitted. He paused. "Big brother, there's something outside!"  
  
"What?" Seto was instantly on the alert.  
  
"I can hear something out there, but it hasn't tripped the alarm system yet," Mokuba replied. "It's almost as if it knows all the ways to avoid it!"  
  
"Mokuba, have you called the police? And the security guards?"  
  
"I wanted to call you first, big brother," Mokuba said, "to make sure that it isn't someone who's supposed to be there." He was obviously thinking of the time the security guards had caught Seto trying to sneak into his own house.  
  
"Alright, Mokuba, I'll tell you what," Seto said, "you call the police and I'll be home as soon I can. Whoever it is is definitely *not* supposed to be there."  
  
After hanging up with Mokuba, Seto saved and closed the computer program and headed for the door. He could still feel something watching him as he left the building and entered the waiting limo. He didn't like to imagine what might be prancing around on the grounds of his estate, and he could only pray that whatever or whoever it was wouldn't harm Mokuba.  
****  
By the time he pulled up in front of his mansion, the police were already there. He got out of the limousine and started walking around to the side of the grounds.  
  
"Wait a minute!" Kaiba froze, feeling the cold metal of a revolver pressing against his shoulder blades. "Turn around slowly." Seto complied, and the police officer flushed with embarrassment. "Oh, my pardons, Mr. Kaiba. Can't be too careful."  
  
Kaiba sighed. "Have you caught anyone besides me?"  
  
"No, Mr. Kaiba. Whoever was here is gone now."  
  
"But they left a calling card," a second officer spoke up grimly. He held up a Xerox of a Blue Eyes White Dragon gaming card, with one disturbing alteration: Its fangs were dripping red with painted-on blood. Seto gasped.  
  
"Big brother! You're here!" Mokuba rushed out the front door to greet him and jumped into his arms. He looked at the Xerox image, puzzled. "What's that?"  
  
"Trouble," Seto replied grimly. Who are you? he screamed in his mind. What do you want?  
  
Patience, my dear Kaiba, a gravelly voice answered.  
  
"Wha—did you hear something, Mokuba?"  
  
Mokuba stared at Seto, concerned. "No, big brother. I didn't hear anything."  
  
"I was afraid of that," Seto muttered.  
  
A maniacal laugh drifted over the wind, a laugh Seto realized was meant for him alone to hear. They're toying with me, he thought angrily.  
  
We will meet again, the disembodied voice assured him. It laughed again and Seto's eyes narrowed in irritation.  
****  
"Kaiba? Hey, Kaiba, you in there?"  
  
Seto snapped to attention. Joey Wheeler was standing in front of him, waving a hand in front of Seto's deep-blue eyes.  
  
"What do you want, Wheeler?"  
  
"You've been spacing out," Joey smirked.  
  
Seto was annoyed. "If that's all you wanted to tell me, maybe you'd like to go give someone else some more useless facts."  
  
Joey laughed and went to his own table in the school cafeteria. Yugi, who had been with Joey, stayed behind. "Are you alright?" he asked, concerned.  
  
Seto sighed. "Yugi, I'll level with you—someone's after me." He considered Yugi as pretty much a friend after all the adventures they'd been through—the first friend he'd had in a long time.  
  
Yugi gasped. "That's awful! Do you have any idea who it is?"  
  
"None. They prowled around my property last night and left a notice that they'd been there—a copy of a Blue Eyes White Dragon card, its fangs dripping with fake blood." Seto's eyes narrowed in vexation at the memory.  
  
Yugi was aghast. "You don't think Pegasus . . ."  
  
"I don't think it's his style," Seto replied. "Tho when we're talking about someone as demented and sick as Maximillian Pegasus, it's hard to know for certain."  
  
At that moment his cell phone rang. "Kaiba," he said gruffly into the phone.  
  
"I'm sorry to bother you, Mr. Kaiba," his receptionist said apologetically, "but there's a client here demanding to speak with you. I didn't know what to do—he's so insistent."  
  
Seto's eyes narrowed. "Not Bellows again."  
  
"Yes, sir, I'm afraid so."  
  
"Tell him I can't be disturbed right now, but if he cares to wait, I'll be back in a couple of hours."  
  
"Yes, sir. Will do!"  
  
Seto hung up the phone and ran a hand through his long bangs. "One problem after another!"  
  
Yugi tried not to laugh. Mr. Bellows was a very high-strung and excitable man who seemed to think the whole world's problems were on his shoulders alone. He pitied Seto for having to deal with him so often.  
****  
Seto stifled a yawn. It had been a long day, filled with two business conferences and an unwilling encounter with Bellows. What an appropriate name, he thought wryly. Once again it was nearly 2am, and once again Seto was hard at work on the computer.  
  
Suddenly cold blue-green eyes flashed at him from the screen and he jerked back in stunned surprise. Then they were gone again.  
  
"I should get some sleep," he muttered. "I'm hallucinating!"  
  
With that, he got up to leave . . . and found himself sprawling on the floor. His eyes narrowed angrily. He hadn't tripped—someone had pushed him. Yet when he turned to look, no one was there. "Come out from your hiding place," he growled. "I know you're here. You can't hide forever."  
  
A cold laugh echoed in his mind, but there was no sign of anyone physically around. Seto struggled to get up and found himself extremely dizzy. "Now what?" he grumbled. He placed a hand on his forehead and grimaced. Then, as suddenly as the dizzy spell had come, it passed, and Seto was able to stumble out the door. "It must be the stress," he reasoned, pressing the button on the elevator.  
****  
Seto jerked awake, flying forward in the back seat of his limo. "What happened?" he demanded.  
  
"Red light," his chauffeur replied.  
  
"I should have you fired," Seto growled. His chauffeur could be extremely reckless, sometimes stopping barely a hair's breadth from causing an accident.  
  
The chauffeur shrugged, starting the limo up again. It was a rainy night, void of almost any people and very lonely.  
  
Suddenly a silhouette appeared out of nowhere, standing right in the middle of the road. "Watch out!" Seto cried. "For Pete's sake, watch it!" The chauffeur, shocked at Seto's sudden outburst, swerved the limo wildly, passing it right through the silhouette, which seemed to be totally unfazed.  
  
The color drained from Seto's face. Was it another hallucination? That was it, it had to be. He was dimly aware that his chauffeur was asking what Seto had been yelling about, but his attention was on the silhouette, which, he realized in horror, looked eerily like himself.  
****  
"I must be going insane."  
  
That was the only explanation Seto could find. It was the only logical explanation, anyway.  
  
"Big brother? Are you alright?" Mokuba asked worriedly. Once again he had stayed up until Seto returned home.  
  
Seto tried to manage a smile. He hadn't realized he'd spoken aloud. "I'm fine, Mokuba." No sense scaring his younger brother with what was happening. "Just tired."  
  
Of course he supposed that that could also be the answer. But that couldn't explain everything, could it? It was almost as if something other-worldly was going on. But what? Nothing made sense.  
****  
Seto could tell something was amiss the next day when school let out.  
  
"Kaiba? What's wrong?" Yugi asked, seeing Seto suddenly freeze up.  
  
"Something's happened to Mokuba," Seto said grimly. "I can tell." Without giving Yugi a chance to reply, he grabbed his cell phone and dialed up his chauffeur. "Where are you?" he demanded. "Have you picked Mokuba up from school yet?"  
  
"Why, no, sir," the chauffeur replied, sounding surprised. "You said you were going to, sir."  
  
"What??! What kind of nonsense is this??!"  
  
"You called and told me you'd get him, sir," the baffled chauffeur said. "You said you were planning to take him on a walk."  
  
"I said no such thing!" Seto replied, absolutely bewildered.  
  
"It sounded just like you, sir," the chauffeur said uncomfortably.  
  
"I'll deal with you later." Seto hung up and turned to Yugi. "I've got to get to Mokuba's school."  
  
"I'll come with you," Yugi offered.  
  
Seto looked at Yugi, about to say no, but then changed his mind. "Thanks."  
****  
"Is Mokuba Kaiba still here?"  
  
The receptionist looked up. "Why, no," she said, surprised. "Someone came to get him."  
  
"Who?" Seto demanded.  
  
"Well, you know, he looked very much like you, Mr. Kaiba," she admitted. "I thought it was you, but now that I see you close-up, I can see it wasn't. You look a lot more pleasant than the other young man. Is he another brother?"  
  
Yugi gasped. "Oh no . . . oh no . . ."  
  
"What is it, Yugi?" Seto demanded, shooting him a Look and ignoring the receptionist's question.  
  
"We'd better talk outside," Yugi replied seriously.  
  
With a nod at the confused receptionist, Seto followed Yugi out the door and around to the side of the building. "Yugi, you know something," he said. "What is it?"  
  
"Remember back at the Duelist Kingdom when I was dueling that fake Seto Kaiba?"  
  
"How could I forget?" Seto grumbled. "I never did fully understand what happened with that guy." Or who he even was, he added to himself.  
  
"I banished him to the Shadow Realm," Yugi replied. "I don't understand how or why, but I have the horrible feeling that he's back."  
  
Seto gave Yugi a strange look. He wasn't any more knowledgeable about the situation now than he was a few minutes before; if anything, he was more clueless. "What would he have done with Mokuba, and why?" he said in despair.  
  
"I don't know, but if he is the one who took Mokuba, we need to find him, and fast." Yugi looked grim.  
  
**Yugi, we're dealing with danger here,** his Yami warned. **Especially Kaiba.**  
  
~Do you know what's happening?~ Yugi asked hopefully.  
  
**Unfortunately, I don't,** Yami replied, **only that it's something very sinister. And that only Kaiba himself can stop it.**  
  
"Kaiba, where are you going?" Yugi exclaimed, seeing the other young man starting to walk off.  
  
"I have to find Mokuba," Seto replied.  
  
Before Yugi could answer, Kaiba was running down the street, disappearing from sight.  
  
"I hope he can," Yugi whispered.  
****  
Seto slammed the phone down in frustration. He had checked everywhere. No one had seen Mokuba at all. What was he going to do?  
  
"Mokuba! Where are you?" he screamed in desperation.  
  
"Big brother?"  
  
Seto froze. Had he just sensed Mokuba calling out to him? "Mokuba, can you hear me?"  
  
"Yes, big brother! I can hear you! I knew that thing wasn't you the moment I saw it!" Mokuba replied excitedly.  
  
"Are you hurt?"  
  
There was a long pause. "I'm okay, big brother."  
  
"That thing hurt you, didn't it?" Seto said grimly.  
  
"I'm okay," Mokuba said again.  
  
Righteous indignation burned within the elder Kaiba. He hadn't been born yesterday; he knew what was going on. Once again his younger brother was the bait to lure him somewhere. Whoever had done this knew exactly how to get to him.  
  
"Do you know where you are?"  
  
Mokuba paused again. Then he blurted, "Seto, it's a trap! He took me to get at you! If you come, he'll hurt you."  
  
"I suspected as much," Seto said darkly. "Don't worry, Mokuba. I'm not afraid of him. I'll rescue you."  
  
"You'd better hurry, Seto Kaiba," a strange, unfamiliar voice cackled, breaking into their connection.  
  
"Who are you?" Seto demanded.  
  
"Ah, you don't recognize me? I'm crushed!" the voice purred.  
  
"What have you done with Mokuba?" Seto was filled with rage.  
  
"He's safe . . . for now," the voice replied.  
  
"Where is he?"  
  
"A place you should remember quite well," the voice said smoothly. "You nearly died here." With that, it broke off the mental connection, leaving Seto in stunned silence.  
  
"Wait a minute!" he said in realization. "It must be the warehouse!"  
  
With that new idea, he turned and headed out the door.  
****  
The area was dark and deserted, as usual, and the broken-down warehouse looked exactly as it had the last time he was here, when he had been under the control of the mind drug. He pushed open the door and went inside. "Mokuba! Are you in here?"  
  
"Over here, big brother," Mokuba called.  
  
Seto turned on his flashlight. Mokuba was chained to the wall, looking worried. "Don't worry, Mokuba. I'll get you out of here."  
  
Mokuba shook his head. "Big brother, we're not alone. . . ."  
  
Seto gasped as a sudden light enveloped them. "What the . . ."  
  
"Welcome to the Shadow Realm, Seto Kaiba," a sinister voice laughed.  
  
Seto gasped. That voice . . . it sounded like . . . himself.  
  
"Recognize me now?" A figure appeared out of nowhere, smirking wickedly. He looked exactly like Kaiba himself, save for his malicious expression and the dark lines under his eyes.  
  
"Who are you?" Seto demanded.  
  
"Why, I'm you, of course," the evil Kaiba replied. "Or at least, a part of you. Surely you haven't forgotten all the good times we had together."  
  
Seto's eyes narrowed. "You're not a part of me anymore. What do you want?"  
  
The evil Kaiba laughed. "When your friend Yugi banished me into the Shadow Realm for the second time, he said I would never be able to escape again. But I have discovered that I can return, because *you* have not banished me. You see, Seto Kaiba, you are my creator. You ultimately control what happens to me. Not Yugi. Only you." He smirked. "And you still hunger for power somewhere deep in your soul. Rejoin with me and we will be unstoppable!"  
  
"What are you talking about?" Seto demanded.  
  
"You know you want to." The evil Kaiba's eyes glinted.  
  
"You're wrong." Seto clenched his hands into fists angrily.  
  
"Not even to rescue Mokuba?" With a sneer, the evil Kaiba sent a bolt of electricity through the boy, who screamed and collapsed to the floor.  
  
Fire burned in Seto's eyes. "What have you done to him?"  
  
"Your little brother has suddenly gotten very sick," the evil Kaiba replied. "Only by rejoining with me can you save him."  
  
"What do you mean?!"  
  
"I just injected him with a drug," the evil Kaiba smirked. "A drug that I created and of which only I have the antidote for. I learned to make myself quite useful here in the Shadow Realm. Using that other drug on you was a mistake, I know now. I should have used it on Mokuba instead."  
  
"What are you saying?" Seto growled. "That you drugged me? Why?"  
  
"To turn you evil of course," the evil Kaiba purred. "If I could make you turn against your friends, and above all, your brother, then I would have a much better chance at becoming part of you again. But unfortunately, you overcame the drug, and survived as well! But now, with your brother's very life at stake, you can't refuse me! If you do, you refuse him as well! And I know you don't want to fail your brother, now, do you?"  
  
All color drained from Seto's face. This thing, this monster was turning his worst fears on him. And to think he had created this beast . . .  
  
What was he going to do? He didn't want to turn wicked and evil, but if he didn't rejoin with that thing, Mokuba wouldn't survive. . . . Wait! What was he thinking? Creatures like the one standing cackling before him never told the truth. Seto knew that this thing would very likely kill Mokuba whatever he decided to do.  
  
"Don't listen to him, big brother!" Mokuba's voice screamed in his mind. "I know you'll make the right decision!"  
  
Seto nodded, a steely determination in his blue eyes. He wouldn't let this thing be a part of him again, not ever! He would just have to have faith that Mokuba would survive, because he was not going to turn evil, and Mokuba wouldn't want him to, not even to save him.  
  
"I want no part of this!" he screamed at his evil counterpart. "You're lying! If I rejoined with you, that's when I would be failing my brother!"  
  
The creature stepped back, apparently not having foreseen this development. Rage and anger twisted its features. "You refuse? Then . . ."  
  
Seto gasped as the thing suddenly changed its form. No longer did it resemble himself—now it was utterly horrendous and vile, both inside and out.  
  
". . . I will join with you by force!" The monstrosity shot out bolts of power, slowly draining Seto of his strength. "I will make you so helpless you won't be able to resist and then I will take you over!"  
  
Seto screamed in agony as the dark forces weakened him. Still, he struggled to keep his wits about him. This thing would never win—not against the real Seto Kaiba! "You will never be part of me again!" he declared, collapsing to his hands and knees. "I won't let you in no matter how weak I am. I will not succumb to your evil and satanic ways! Never!" He began to tremble in pain and collapsed to the floor, but then struggled to get up. "Leave us and never come back! I will not . . . let you in . . . never! Be gone!"  
  
Suddenly the pressure was released as the demonic beast ceased its attack, shrieked in torment, and vanished into nothingness. All was quiet once again. Perhaps too quiet. Seto fell to the floor, gasping. "Mokuba," he breathed, struggling once again to get up. "Please don't let him be dead," he prayed.  
  
He stumbled across the space to where his brother was laying. The demonic chains had crumbled away when Seto had banished the evil creature, but Mokuba was now very still and cold to the touch. Seto gathered him into his arms, tears filling his eyes. "No, Mokuba! No!" He held his brother's body close, suddenly realizing how weak he was from the hideous beast's attack. Combined with this new shock, it was all too much. With a groan, he slumped against the wall, falling into oblivion.  
****  
"Kaiba?"  
  
"I think he's coming to."  
  
The voices were familiar, but in Seto's confused state he couldn't quite place which voice belonged to whom. "Who's there?" he mumbled finally when he had the strength to speak.  
  
"Yugi," was the reply.  
  
"And Bakura," a soft voice added.  
  
"Tea," came the feminine voice.  
  
"Tristan."  
  
"Hey, even me," a voice that was unmistakably Joey Wheeler's said in a smart-alecky tone.  
  
Seto finally managed to pry his eyes open. He was still slumped against the warehouse wall, and Yugi and the others were gathered around him. His gaze landed on Tea, who was holding a small form in her arms. "Mokuba!" he rasped, gathering his strength and reaching out to take the boy from Tea. "He's not . . . please don't say he's . . ."  
  
"I'm so sorry," Tea said softly, her eyes glistening. "We found him like this. . . . We don't know if he's . . ."  
  
Seto wasn't half-listening. "Mokuba," he whispered, tears falling from his eyes. It was the first time any of them had seen Seto cry. "Please wake up, little brother! Please!" He gently brushed the long, dark bangs away from Mokuba's closed eyes.  
  
The young boy groaned, his blue-gray eyes opening in wonder. "Seto? Big brother?"  
  
Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.  
  
"Mokuba!" Seto pulled him into an embrace. "You had me worried . . .!"  
  
"I knew you'd make the right choice and save us both," Mokuba said proudly. "I knew you wouldn't give in to that jerk."  
  
"I wasn't going to let that creep boss me around," Seto replied with a smile.   
  
With his brother safe, Seto turned to a new mystery. "How did you guys get here?"  
  
"We came looking for you," Yugi replied.  
  
"We found you here, but we couldn't get through to you," Tea added.  
  
"Yugi's Yami said that you were in the Shadow Realm," Bakura explained. "We could see and hear you, but we couldn't reach you."  
  
"But then how . . .?" Seto was confused.  
  
"You broke the power of the Shadow Realm when you defeated the evil Kaiba," Yugi said softly. "I thought I had defeated him myself before, but then I realized that only his creator could permanently overpower him. Only you can overcome your own evil side. No one else."  
  
Seto was quiet, pondering on Yugi's words. It all sounded rather strange and he didn't quite understand it all—his evil side splitting off into its own separate entity was an extremely weird concept—but it also made an odd kind of sense. And thankfully, when he had defeated his evil side, that had also broken the power of the drug Mokuba had been struck down with, he realized. Dark forces couldn't remain where there was truth and good.  
  
"So, Kaiba . . ." Joey grinned mischievously. "It looks like you did somethin' good. I don't know if anything will surprise me again!"  
  
Seto smirked at Joey as he stood up with Mokuba and they proceeded to exit the ancient warehouse. "I just may have a few more surprises in store yet, Wheeler." 


End file.
